Corporate Water Accounting: An Analysis of Methods and Tools for ...

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Summary of Scope and Structure for Major Corporate Water Accounting Methods and Tools
Criteria Water Footprint Life Cycle Assessment
WBCSD Global
Water Tool
GEMI Water
Sustainability Tools
Definition
• WFN’s water footprint
measures the total volume
of freshwater used to
produce the goods and
services consumed by any
well-defined group of
consumers, including a
family, municipality,
province, state, nation, or
business/organization.
• A Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA) is the quantification of
the environmental impacts
of a given product or service
caused or necessitated by
its existence. LCA identifies
the environmental impacts
incurred at different stages
in the value chain.
• WBCSD’s online tool
couples corporate water
use, discharge, and facility
information with watershed
and country-level data. This
allows companies to assess
and communicate their
water risks relative to water
availability and access in
their operations and supply
chains.
• GEMI’s online tools help
organizations build a water
strategy. They assess a
company’s and its
facilities’ relationships to
water, identify risks, and
describe the business case
for action that addresses
companies’ specific needs
and circumstances.
Scope /
Boundaries
• Water-specific – comprehensive
measurement of
corporate water use/discharge
only
• Emphasizes “evaporated
water” (i.e. consumptive
uses)
• Assesses many environmental
resources uses and
emissions, including but not
limited to water
• Comprehensive measurement
of water use and
assessment of impacts
• Measures consumptive and
non-consumptive uses
• Water-specific
• Rough measurement of
water use and efficiency
• Determines relative
water-related business risks
• Provides information on
countries and watersheds
• Water-specific
• Rough measurement of
water use and assessment
of key water impacts
• Assess water-related
business risks
Structure
and Output
• Divided into blue, green,
and gray footprints
• Corporate footprints
divided into operational and
supply-chain footprints
• Results provided in actual
volumes
• Inventory results
• Impact divided into several
different types of quantified
impact categories
• Impacts by life cycle phase
• Results can be expressed in
weighted impacts across
different impact categories
• Provides many disparate
components, including key
water GRI Indicators,
inventories, risk and
performance metrics, and
geographic mapping
• Tool divided into 5 modules:
water uses, prioritized risks,
risk mitigation, goals, water
strategy
• Planner divided into 3
modules: water use, risk
assessment, case examples
Origins and
Level of
Maturity
• Fairly well-established
with water resource
management community
• Relatively new to private
sector
• Corporate water accounting
calculations and impact
assessment methods
and related support tools
still nascent and under
development
• Very well-established
general method for environmental
assessments of
products, companies, and
regional systems (e.g. water
supply or wastewater management
systems)
• Water has only recently
been considered as an area
of focus
• Methods for measuring
water use and assessing
related impacts are nascent
and still evolving
• Introduced in 2007 and has
since become commonly
used in private sector
• Version 2.0—featuring
updated data and new types
of date—released in 2009
• Currently in scoping phase
to include energy component.
• The Tool was released in
2002; the Planner was
released in 2007.
• No publicly announced
plans to further develop or
expand